A while ago, we got an email from Chang Chia-Yen (aka Geoian), in Taiwan. He’s a teacher in a secondary school there, and has been using Postcrossing with his classes… with a twist!
For a while, Geoian and his students collected postcard from all over the world, until they received a nice variety of them. Then, they shuffled all the cards together, divided the class into 2 teams and got ready for a mighty game of bingo!
The goal of Geoian’s class bingo is to be the first to make a straight line of 5 items (in this case, postcards), either diagonal, vertical or horizontally across the board, and eventually to complete it. At the start, each team fills up their lattice with postcards they pick, distributed randomly.
Then, conditions are laid out — these are special criteria such as “a multiview card”, “a card from a World Heritage site” or “a card featuring an aurora borealis”. Some are quite specific, while others are broad ranging and might be able to accommodate several different postcards.
They randomly choose the criteria for each turn, list them all on their blackboard, and then the game can start! In each turn, teams choose one postcard that matches the condition at play, and can thus be removed from the board. (Teams can also play some wildcards that change the conditions to better suit their needs… but we won’t go into so much detail). Whoever removes all the postcards from a straight line, makes a bingo!
It seems tricky, and I confess we had a little trouble understanding the concept initially… so the students got together on their own initiative and made a really nice video to show us the game in action! We found it really endearing and were infected by their enthusiasm — so we decided to share it with you all! Here it is:
It’s very nice to see this whole new dimension to exploring postcards — and also to know that the fun doesn’t stop after a card his registered! 😊 A huge thank you to Geoian for coming up with the game, and to all his students who took the time to make this video on own their free time to help us understand their bingo game. They are Angelina and Cathy (the hosts), Jenny and Nini (the videographers), and Linda, Mina, Frank, Duke, Jacob, Gino, Doris and Alex (the players) — thank you guys!
PS – If you’re a teacher or a parent, why not give it a go? Categories can be as convoluted or simple as you’d like, adapting the difficulty level to each children’s skills. Let us know how it goes!
26 comments so far
Sounds really cool. Unfortunately I couldn't watch the video, because of some GEMA orders.
Wish you all good luck and a happy time.
Bye, Sam
So cool :)
I still don't understand it completely... I am really bad at understanding game rules. *sigh* It looks really fun though. And the video is great!
Haha.. cool. I can see that one of the cards is probably sent by me ;-)
What a great idea! Amazing game! I'll play this bingo-card-game with my French students. Congratulations to the students and the teacher! Greetings from the Dominican Republic. =)
Love it!
GREAT!!!!
a long life to you creative people!!!
Now I have one reason more to visit Taiwan!
all the best
I don't understand the rules, but love the concept and LOVE the video! Great job to these teens for their enthusiasm! Wonderful! Impressed in the USA :)
Here is what I do with the postcards that I collect and received: https://www.facebook.com/rodrigo.dvjr/media_set?set=a.1150279174632.16579.1757210839&type=3
Terrific idea and fabulous video! I,too, remain confused about the rules, but perhaps that is due to my ignorance of the rules and practices of Pokemon-type battles which seem to figure in this game. I'm sure the teachers on the site would LOVE to have Chang Chia-Yen explain this more thoroughly in a future blog post or on a thread in the forum! I know I would love to see that!
Actually I even created an NGO with postcards and stamps.Details can be seen on my two blogs
http://butterflypostcardandstamp.blogspot.my/
http://cardsoftheworld.blogspot.my/
I can transfer this concept to any person or group of people.I also create blogs and then get cards to reach the group from people who have lots of cards and do not know what to do with them.
Most of all I know lots of people who have so many mint and used stamps they do not know what to do with them.
As a group we even travel to places where the postcards and stamps are kept hidden and release these treasures into the world.
I wish I could watch the video (in Germany, lots of videos are blocked on YouTube), but it does sound like fun. :)
Sorry, I do not know what problem is happening in the video.
Would you mind to try it again? Link as follows:
Https://youtu.be/vZKhPBn7AXU
Thank you everyone!
The above link works. (I had no video accessible here in the US)
Thanks Geoian!
What a great idea!! Thanks for sharing!! :-D
Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea. Enjoy !
We've uploaded the video to FaceBook.
If you can not watch the video on youtube, try it!
Hoping you can like this video.😁
Https://www.facebook.com/PostcardGame/videos/623344884504405/
that is so awesome
Great idea! I want to introduce the postcrossing idea to my students. After watching this film I know it's worth! Thera are so many things you can do with the postcards to use them to improve student's English and to show them the world! Nice! Thank you for the inspiration! If you are intested in long distance learning with students in Poland just let me know! :) Big hugs and kisses for all of you!!!
What a precious idea and wonderful video...incredible to "meet" some students from Taiwan who take a great interest in their class work with creative assistance from their teacher. It's memorable learning wrapped in Fun.
Great idea! I'll definitely try this with my pen pals and postcrossing club. It would be helpful if the rules were explained in more detail. Thanks for posting this.
It is very difficult for me to explain the rules in English.
But I have tried. See?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uy0HgnHKNz4wI-hiRQ2dDRFjXAmOKuZCQwDK7v6h6r4/edit?usp=sharing
Great idea! Love it.
Great Video and super idea!!!!! The rules are a bit complicated!!!!
I like it, great idea! :)
Thank author for the post and thank you for the video, guys!
Hi , these is great, I'm thinking about to make also for seniors where I work with,
Thank you, Anneke
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